By Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie, Managing Editor

The socialist government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken the capitalist decision to privatize the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), one of the nation's priciest assets, this newspaper can reveal!

Along the way to the privatization, Professor Atta Mills and his government has committed Ghana to give the transaction advisors a juicy 13 million dollars as fees and commissions!So far, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, the Minister of Finance of President John Evans Atta Mills, who as the opposition leader went on demonstrations on the streets of Accra carrying placards saying that Ghanaians are capable of managing their own affairs, has written to Ecobank Development Corporation and Ecobank Ghana Limited authorizing them to take over as transaction advisors.

their fee, they would earn a cool one million dollars, and another $12 million as commissions and fees! Half of the initial one million dollars is payable immediately upon signing the agreement!

The letter of authorization intercepted by this newspaper, courtesy Oman FM in Accra, is dated 7th September this year and also details how government deliberately lied to the people of Ghana about the actual size of the TOR debt. The document infers that the actual debt may be around $300 million (three hundred million dollars) instead of the nearly one billion dollars that the government has been consistently hammering into the minds of Ghanaians! The letter, addressed to the Managing Directors of the two companies named above, state that pursuant to government's decision to restructure and recapitalize the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning has granted Ecobank Development Corporation and Ecobank Ghana Limited the exclusive mandate to assist MOFEP, the Ministry of Energy (MOE) and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to undertake the assignment.

The scope of the mandate is described as a) establishing and confirming the true state of TOR's current debt; b) arrangement and syndication of US$300 million or the Ghana cedis equivalent to refinance the existing debt and the working capital of TOR; c)arranging a US$300 million facility through the issuance of a medium term bond to strengthen TOR's balance sheet; d) arranging additional funds to make up for any financing gaps identified and e) LEAD AND MANAGE THE EVENTUAL PRIVATIZATION OF TOR! (Emphasis ours!) .So there it is! Government has decided that it would sell the Tema Oil Refinery, in complete contrast to the position it took on the sale of 70% shares of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone PLC! For their troubles, the two branches of Ecobank would pick up a cool one million dollars, half of it payable immediately!

Another 50% would be paid upon the disbursement of the 'working capital facility'.

Interestingly, an additional twelve million dollars has been worked into the agreement for ECOBANK as a bonus if they are able to raise the six hundred million dollars that they are being paid one million dollars for! In a deal that smarts of an attempt to scam the people of Ghana, the already financially encumbered Tema Oil Refinery is also expected to fork out $200, 000.00 to Ecobank should it attempt to pull out of the deal, whilst paying Ecobank extra monies for carrying out the work assigned to it. Indeed whilst Ecobank would be receiving upwards of $13 million for this contract, government would be expected to pick up the tab for their use of stationary, telephone, fax, courier, printing, travel and accommodation (with prior government approval).

Interestingly, the letter also stipulates that both parties should hide all information on the transaction from the public! Meanwhile industry experts have started asking serious questions about the transparency surrounding the whole transaction, following suggestions that this very juicy contract was not advertised. Again, industry experts are wondering why government should be paying over $13 million to a private bank when it has institutional capacity to execute this contract!